Just Sayin’: Cyclists should heed road rules
Cyclists properly ride on the right side of the road while passing a solar farm on Edwards Avenue in Calverton in 2015. Credit: Steve Pfost
I constantly see pedestrians walking with traffic right alongside or across from perfectly serviceable sidewalks. I also see bicyclists riding on roads while facing traffic, even in bike lanes with arrows showing the proper direction, though they are required to move with traffic. I also see them unnecessarily driving on sidewalks.
Our state’s laws require pedestrians to use sidewalks when they are available and make it illegal in those places to walk in the road. And when there is no sidewalk, pedestrians walking along and on a highway shall, when practical, walk only on the left side of the road or its shoulder facing traffic.
Lenny G. Ancona, Centereach
Clean up after block parties and yard sales
Earlier this summer, I was stopped midway down my block by yellow caution tape strung across the width of my street. Some neighbors had decided to have yet another block party. The detour was a small price to pay, I thought, for community harmony.
But the next day, the tape was cut from one pole, and yards and yards of it were blowing in the wind, littering the street, interfering with traffic and getting tangled in the tires of vehicles.
So people had time to bring out tables and chairs, set up tents and kiddie pools and riding toys, prepare food, and then break everything down, but not one person had a moment to snip the tape off the pole and throw it away?
This is what I call the yard-sale syndrome. Months and even years after a yard sale ends, the flyers and posters and signs and ads are still flapping in the breeze from poles and trees, defacing our communities.
Is it any wonder that “the rules don’t apply to me” attitude is so pervasive? How will our children learn to pick up after themselves and take responsibility for their actions if they have no example set for them?
If you take it out, put it back. If you tack it up, take it down. That is common courtesy. People whose yard sale signs are up 24 hours after the event should be cited. And how easy that would be? The addresses are all over the signs.
Penny Reich, Wantagh
